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archive: Riot police attack students outside Athens Polytechnic

Amid scenes of panic, riot police used batons, stun grenades and tear gas to attack hundreds students attempting to hold a protest meeting on the campus of Athens Polytechnic on Thursday night.

In a video filmed from a balcony on Stournari St, where students had managed to force open a side gate to the university, which reportedly had been locked on the orders of the rector, a detachment of MAT riot police can be seen attacking the demonstrating students as they approached the entrance at around 8pm.

The footage shows officers – who reportedly had given no prior warning to the students to disperse – chasing protesters, hitting them indiscriminately with batons, and spraying gas into a crowd of people they had cornered around the university entrance.

There were reports of about a dozen injuries. Witnesses said they saw photojournalist Giannis Liakos of InTime agency being stuck in the head with a baton by a riot policeman.

The students had planned to hold a general assembly to discuss events earlier in the day at Athens University, where riot police moved in to prevent the building being occupied ahead of Monday’s commemoration of the 1973 Polytechnic uprising which was bloodily suppressed by the junta.

Two students suffering injuries, one to the head and face, when riot police moved in on protesters who had gathered outside the university.